“And when the leaders of a powerful country like the United States get involved in a struggle against a small country like ours, one that they have never been able to defeat, it is logical that they pay in disrepute the consequences of their clumsy policy.”
Quotes
"From day one of the revolutionary victory our country has never set obstacles to the legal emigration of Cuban citizens to the United States or to any other country. At the time of the triumph of the Revolution many people in Cuba, like in the rest of the Caribbean and Latin America, who endured poverty and underdevelopment, wanted to migrate to seek for better paid jobs and better living conditions than they could find in their countries subjected to centuries of exploitation and plundering. Until 1959, an extremely limited number of visas were issued to Cubans. After that, for obvious reasons, the gates were wide opened and that is how an important number of Cubans began settling in the United States".
"La Ley de Ajuste Cubano no solo constituye una ley asesina, sino también una ley terrorista, de un terrorismo de la peor especie, que mata conscientemente y sin el menor remordimiento a niños inocentes".
"The Cuban Adjustment Act will become a major irrefutable moral argument. There will always be people everywhere willing to risk their lives to emigrate illegally, but there will never be any justification to encourage them to do it. That is a crime against humanity and an expression of hateful contempt for human life".
“We are a patriotic and honorable people that will never accept impositions or threats from anyone but we are also sincere friends of the United States, particularly of all the good Americans --who are many-- and we keep discovering many more.”
"There is no need to emphasize what Cuba has always said: we do not fear dialogue with the United States. Nor do we need the confrontation to exist as some foolish people think: we exist precisely because we believe in our ideas and we have never feared dialogue with the adversary. It is the only way to secure friendship and peace among peoples."
"Cuba has resisted and it will continue to resist; it will never beg for alms. It will go on forward holding its head up high and cooperating with the fraternal peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean; with or without Summits of the Americas; whether or not the president of the United States is Obama, a man or a woman, a black or a white citizen."
"Even though it hurts our modesty, it is a bitter duty to say that our blockaded, threatened and slandered country has shown that Latin American peoples can live without either violence or drugs. It can even live, and that’s what has happened for more than half a century, without relations with the United States. That is something we haven’t shown; they have. "